Wrapping up his investigation into Saddam Hussein's purported arsenal, the CIA's top weapons hunter in Iraq said his search for weapons of mass destruction "has been exhausted" without finding any.And to prove the FNC is "fair and balanced" let's talk about this ridiculous, overused, inaccurate line:
Nor did he find any evidence that such weapons were shipped officially from Iraq to Syria to be hidden before the U.S. invasion, but he couldn't rule out some unofficial transfer of limited WMD-related materials.
The Bush administration justified its 2003 invasion of Iraq as necessary to eliminate Hussein's purported stockpile of WMD.For the billionth time, this was not the sole reason for going...there were three reasons for removing Saddam from power. You can read my whole analysis of the Bush administration's decision here.
Not this bit about Syria in the Washington Post version of this story:
Although Syria helped Iraq evade U.N.-imposed sanctions by shipping military and other products across its borders, the investigators "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD." Because of the insular nature of Saddam Hussein's government, however, the investigators were "unable to rule out unofficial movement of limited WMD-related materials."Emphasis added...
It makes a difference, folks...it really does.